Formed in Minneapolis during the mid-1990s by guitarist Paul Olsen and singer Mike Mattison, Scrapomatic earned widespread local recognition and several Minnesota Music Award nominations before heading eastward to New York City in 1997 in pursuit of fame and, hopefully, a little fortune. While Olsen has won respect and accolades as a songwriter, Mattison has taken up with the Derek Trucks Band as its vocalist, touring over 100 nights a year with the band. Scrapomatic's Sidewalk Caesars is the band's third album, and its most mature and musically exciting effort yet.
Scrapomatic's Sidewalk Caesars
The shuffling "He Called My Name" opens Scrapomatic's Sidewalk Caesars, a fine showcase for Paul Olsen's strutting fretwork and Mike Mattison's gruff, Leonesque (as in Redbone) vocals. Lyrically, the song is a bit of a cipher...somethin' 'bout religion, I suppose...but the song's slow, languid groove and Tyler Greenwell's hard-charging drumbeats are a nice companion to Olsen's imaginative guitarplay and guest star Derek Trucks' vibrating slide guitar.
Trucks returns for the rocking "I Want The Truth," lending his washboard-slide genius behind Mattison's erstwhile plea for love and honesty. While the band delivers a rollicking soundtrack with plenty o' thumping bass notes, Trucks scrapes the strings with abandon as Olsen pounds away at the corners of the song with reckless country soul. Olsen takes the lead on "Hook, Line And Sinker," his reedy vocals bringing a Southern rock feel to the song's slinky Stax groove, his six-string evoking memories of Steve Cropper and hot Memphis nights.
An unlikely cover of Robert Hazard's 1980s-era pop-trollop "I Just Wanna Hang Around With You" is re-purposed as a barn-burning raver with revved-up tempos, driving guitarwork, crashing bass drums and cymbals, and a throbbing, rock-solid bass line. Olsen draws a line as stark as Sherman's march to Atlanta with his incendiary solos that are woven throughout the song. Olsen takes the mic again for the ballad "Good Luck With Your Impossible Dream," his breathless vocals supported by elegant fretwork and subtle, understated rhythms.
The Old Whiskey Show
Alcohol, the rigors of drinking, is a common theme in blues music, and there are a couple of tunes on Sidewalk Caesars that tackle the boozy stereotype. The free-floating "Drink House" is a pick-up line set to a slightly funky up-tempo rhythm, Mattison intoxicated at the bar, trying to take a chance on love, his vocals strutting above a contagious beat and Olsen's subdued, but gorgeous tones.
"Killing Yourself On Purpose" is the flipside of that coin, a dark bluesy number in the "baby, please don't go" vein that speaks of the downside of overconsumption, lyrics supported by steady drumbeats, casual guitar strum, and Ted Pecchio's jumping basswork. The song's oblique lyrics are fraught with brilliant imagery, applied with perfection by Mattison's grizzled vocals, wrapped around great lines like "throw my ashes in the river, hang my halo out to dry, throw my ashes in the river, or catch me like a cloud going by."
"The Old Whiskey Show" is the third part of this trilogy-plus-one, a stately waltz with perfect note-picking from Olsen behind Mattison's poetic, albeit confusing wordplay, the song's underplayed instrumentation placing an emphasis on Mattison's lofty vocals. A cover of the Skip James classic country blues song "Drunken Spree," delivered as an upbeat medicine show stomper, offers some fine fingerpicking and a carefree soundtrack behind Mattison's jaunty vocals.
The Reverend's Bottom Line
Unfairly originally pigeonholed as a soul-blues band, Scrapomatic nevertheless breaks through any barriers - real or perceived - with the excellent musical buffet of Sidewalk Caesars. Drawing upon acoustic Delta blues as an inspiration, Olsen and Mattison and crew throw heaping chunks of country twang, Southern rock and soul, and roots-rock with gospel overtones into the grooves of Sidewalk Caesars. This is roots music at its best, Scrapomatic bringing American musical tradition into the 21st century with style and personality. (Landslide Records)
